Though the problem doesn't reside only in scale or location numbers. Even if finite and not that big, world of Breath of the Wild, GTAV or largely smaller ones like Outer Wilds and Prey can provide great exploration.
Sure you must have content, but you must have first and foremost proper level (and don't mean visual one) and gameplay designs.
An interesting observation.
What makes exploration viable?
Most important I d say is the "unknown". There has to be areas either hidden or far away that require an active effort and curiosity to make the player make that effort. Oftentimes a lot of exploration is covered by regular gameplay. Missions or activities that send you into unknown areas. Many sandbox games start out with a giant unknown map and simply by playing the tutorial or doing whatever catches your eye you uncover a certain percentage and sniff out things to do.
Now some games try to advertise their gameplay as a specialization meaning the player makes the decision to focus mainly on exploration while neglecting other (maybe more lucrative) activities. Several things need to be checked to make that possible.
- reward system
- deeper layers of exploration allowing dedication or justifying the singular focus
- exploration specific obstacles or challenges that offer a different gamestyle to say...trading or mission running
Most games concentrate on the reward system. By uncovering the whole map you unearth locations, lore, see beautiful places or can participate in unique events. Of course oftentimes exploration is driven by the "completionist" urge when people get tired of doing side missions, fighting, developing their character and they look for something different to do or just try to get that 100% before moving on. Games like EVE make exploration a whole profession on its own giving access to tools and skills that allow the explorer to do things somebody who doesnt make that conscious choice isnt going to do. Ship customization plays into this as well as specific skills that require a hard choice because you drop other things for it. In ED you become an explorer by venturing outside the bubble thus entering an unforgiving environment where simple mistakes or oversights can cost you your life. Suddenly you have to consider things that never were a concern before.
For Star Citizen I m going to say that a good portion of exploration already came right-out-of-the-box with cryengine and the space legs implementation. Usually its not systems or planets in SC because there are hardly any but its stuff like derelicts, caves or outposts that invite to explore. The simple going-out trying to discover things is already covered. But SC is missing the things that would justify a dedication to exploration or becoming an explorer. Everybody can do this, regardless of equipment or ship. You might not be as good as a real explorer (what is that anyway in SC-terms? Just the ship you fly?) but due to the lack of skills the only distinction is your own activity. Scan mechanics, exploration mini-games....all that is missing so right now SC only has covered the "basics".
And the basics entail doing exploration for the sake of exploration because besides complexity SC is also missing content. There are caves and derelicts but the few that exist are already mapped out and probably worn down from all the visitors that checked them out by now. With only a few systems SC (planned, also not realized so far) probably never will beckon like EVE, ED or NMS where the "unknown" is galaxies or star systems away. And only offering designed content/locations runs into the same problem a lot of games before ran into. "Content locusts" will consume new content faster then the developers can ever provide them. Maybe you could save up content to satisfy hardcore players for a couple weeks upon release but from then on its that problem again. Some games bet on procedural generated content to continue give people an incentive to explore. New temporary warppoints or maybe events. And while this is certainly open to Star Citizen as well I havent seen any capability so far to exploit that or even make apush in that direction. CIGs procedural generation engine is unable to deliver content on its own without heavy oversight or human touch which prevents them into tapping into the core strength of that technology.
A full-blown exploration carreer requires an activity-specific design either by skills or features/mechanics that support or enable that profession. Star Citizen doesnt have any of that so far. Worse....in year 8 of development CIG is unable to share specifics but rather describes future "eventualities" as if nobody is sure yet how this will play out. Its save to assume CIG
doesnt have a plan for exploration to date. Personally this would be a gigantic red flag to me but maybe I m just impatient or something. People hope for a clever design but the key word here is "hope" and I feel that this would be a massive mistake to make in terms of project development. Either you have absolutes or you dont. You know what to do or you dont. At the very least you need to know the goal to work for. Maybe we as backers and the community are not entitled to these answers but what we can observe to date suggests even the developers working on this game dont know the answers (or are not allowed to share them....for whatever reason).
Right now Star Citizens old advertisement "do whatever you want to do" certainly holds but it does that because no matter what you do....its not important. Exploration doesnt require you to make a conscious decision or to minmax your character or ship. Exploration is possible because it has zero requirements and the only reward right now is your motivation when you "feel" like it. The other side is that the few locations that even allow exploration are "hidden". This SC isnt and probably never will be "chock full of content to last a lifetime".
You can explore in SC depending on how new or roleplay-oriented you are and I believe people when they say they like it but we need to underline that SCs exploration capabilities are pretty much covered by the basic implementation so far. Space legs, movement and distance. Apart from ships that are sold for extra money the explorer profession hasnt gotten any attention or love and we dont even know if theres a design paper on it. In terms of "exploration class" CIG is sitting at a fat zero % and i cant see them going to 50 or 100 in that regard. Too many "maybes" that need to be checked for that to happen. That means that SCs biggest lure in terms of exploration is content density and I dont think I need to answer that also
Star Citizen sounds great on paper but I feel we are at a point where "talking" simply isnt enough anymore. We should be able to glimpse the dream coming together or to have access to information that allows us to predict the next year of development tied to expectations and realistic estimates.
In 2020 and after spending 300 million dollars...sadly.....CIG and therefore Star Citizen is all-talk and hardly any substance. I feel like that is a realistic assessment without hate or pink-tinted goggles.
